Hiking Difficulties
by A Country Gal
Summary: The Beans and the Squirrels are going for a group hike. However it doesn't exactly go as well as initially thought when two scouts end up getting lost due to a weakness in the buddies' system Ms. Doe imposed upon the scouts. Some SamsonAlmondine.
1. Chapter One: A Hike?

_**Note to Reader**: This is my first ever fan fiction. I first started writing it on the 23rd of August in 2006 and for a long time tried the best I could to write this given information I know about the characters featured. In this, I tried to keep everyone as in-character as I could, but instead of tackling the usual things people like, I figured I'd do something a little different and go out on a limb with Samson and Almondine. Ever since I saw "Squirrel Seats" (And how shunned on the bus Almondine seemed) I pondered the possibility of how they would react should they ever actually speak to eachother. Heh, I had to make some assumptions about Almondine's character the most, but I figured it helps me to learn how to write with the limited amounts of information provided to me from the show and make educated guesses. **Disclaimer: I do not own "Camp Lazlo" or any characters featured in this story**_**—**_**Only the story idea.** Well, I hope y'all enjoy?_

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Chapter One: A Hike?

It started out just like any ordinary day at Acorn Flats. Out blared Ms. Mucus's bugle, waking all of the Squirrel Scouts. She shouted her orders to them, and all of the Squirrel Scouts went through their daily-morning routine of showering, tooth-brushing, and other things to prepare to enter the day. After all was said and done there, they were ready to disperse and hang out with their friends to play, talk, and do the daily activities.

Patsy began to head off with Nina and Gretchen to the mud puddles, while others began to run off to play and climb and do various things. However, before they got too far, Jane Doe, the Scout Mistress of the Squirrel Scouts, tried to stop them, for she had an announcement to make.

"Squirrels! I have an… —_be careful!_" she shouted to a Squirrel Scout who was hanging from a high branch, laughing. She lacked the projection in her voice required to get their attention, and thus many Squirrel Scouts didn't acknowledge the fact she was calling to them. She tried again, "Squirrels!" in her same soft, high voice. "Ugh," she sighed in frustration as Ms. Mucus stepped in.

"Alright, scouts, listen up!" Ms. Mucus shouted in her loud voice, and that was all that was needed. Suddenly every scout came to a halt and the shouting and laughing ceased. Even the tennis balls of a nearby tennis game paused in mid air from Ms. Mucus's voice.

"Thank you, Ms. Mucus," Ms. Doe said to her as she stepped towards the cluster of Squirrel Scouts. "Okay, as you all know, I have told you all about a hike we'll be going on, do you all remember? Well, we are going to-day! Are you all packed?"

"Yes, Ms. Doe," they said.

"We finished that yesterday," Amber added.

"That's good!" Ms. Doe exclaimed. "Oh! I almost forgot! We will be going on this hike with the Bean Scouts as well! Isn't that great?"

Most of the Squirrel Scouts moaned, while Patsy smiled and sighed happily at the thought of seeing Lazlo yet again.

Many of the other scouts muttered to themselves. Exclamations like, "Man, we have to be around the boys again?" and, "The Bean Scouts smell bad!" followed by, "You've got that right!" could be heard amongst the crowd.

"Now, now," Ms. Doe said, "I know you guys are just as excited about this hike as I am!" She smiled. "Go get your bags! We'll head over there in one hour to meet up with them across the lake. Don't want to be late!"

The Squirrel Scouts headed off to their cabins to retrieve their bags. One hour later they wandered onto the boat as it was started, and a moment later they were off across Leaky Lake to their neighboring camp in Prickly Pines.

Meanwhile, the all of the Bean Scouts had just _began_ preparing. They never really got up with the sun, as the Squirrel Scouts do. They were all quickly packing, and in the Jelly Cabin, the trio were discussing how they felt about the hike.

"I think it will be an adventure!" Lazlo exclaimed.

"Lazlo, you think everything is an adventure!" Raj replied. "But what if we get lost or hurt or bugs fly up our noses?! Aaah!" Raj grabbed his trunk and shuddered at the thought.

"Bugs up nose!" Clam hopped by, holding his backpack for the hike above his head and smiling his default, goofy smile.

"Don't worry, Raj," Lazlo replied. "I'm sure everything will go great!"

Raj, still a little unnerved, replied, "Okay, Lazlo; if you say so…"

Down in the Fava Cabin, Samson, Ping-Pong, and Dave were preparing. Dave and Ping-Pong were already done, while Samson, on the other hand, was still busy packing away his health buddies into his backpack for the hike.

"Okay, Health Buddies! In you go, Eyeball Buddy, Skin-Rash Buddy, Asthma Buddy, Allergy Buddy and—" He reached behind himself on his bed for his last "buddy", but felt nothing. "—Aaah, nerts! Where are you, Foot-Fungus Buddy?!" He turned around and saw that his foot-fungus spray had just rolled off the bed. "Oh! Phew! There you are!" He smiled and put the last buddy in his bag. He then grabbed a bottle of water, tissues, bandages, hand sanitizer, a feather duster, spray cleaner, cloth cleaning rags, and some other things he considered as necessities, and put it all in his bag. Though, he didn't consider at the time, that most of that stuff would prove to be either superfluous or just plain not needed at all, if brought on a hike.

Ping-Pong and Dave, hearing the voice again, suddenly realized it was Samson. They looked at Samson funny, and Dave said, "Do you really need all that?"

"Of course!" Samson replied. "You never can be too careful!" Samson zipped up his backpack, which was just about to give out from all of the things he put in. He put it on his back and fell face first as soon as he leaned forward to walk. "…Merp…" He got up. "Maybe you have a point…" He looked into his backpack again, and removed a few things, reluctantly. He then tried to put his backpack back on again and this time it fit. "There…" He turned to the stack of things he took out and looked in an unsure manner at them, hoping he wasn't going to need the quarter gallon of hand sanitizer, feather duster, cloth cleaning rags, and spray cleaner he took out, amongst other things.

"Come on!" Ping-Pong said. "It's time to head out."

"Coming," Samson said heading over to the exit, then pausing and looking back.

"You won't need that stuff, Samson," Dave said, knowing exactly why he was looking back.

"Okay," Samson said as he ran out to the group of the Bean Scouts, whereas they met up with Ms. Doe and the Squirrel Scouts by the lake.

"Okay, Squirrels!" Ms. Doe said as she exited the boat with the other Squirrel Scouts. "Let's now give the Beans our Squirrel Scout Salutation! Ready?" At that, Ms. Doe blew a note for them to begin on, and the Squirrel Scouts muttered inaudibly in a listless and slightly annoyed manner.

"Oh, kay, then…" Ms. Doe looked at them. "We'll need to practice that more when we get back from the hike, then!"

Their muttering grew louder then subsided. Patsy looked at Lazlo and smiled. "Hi, Lazlo!"

Lazlo noticed her and waved back. "Hello, Patsy!"

Patsy just stood there and looked at him dreamily. Lazlo, whom was completely oblivious as to why she was looking at him like that, just smiled back.

Scoutmaster Lumpus groaned, "Let's just go and get this over with," and motioned out to the woods.

"Oh, not yet, Scoutmaster _Lahmpas!_" Ms. Doe said to him, unaware that she mispronounced his name again.

"Oh, it's _Lumpus_, Ms. Doe," Lumpus corrected.

"We still have to organize the scouts into pairs!" Ms. Doe said as she began to pair them all up, much like she did at the "Shin Dootenannebaloo". She obviously doesn't really consider change too much, as she hums merrily, pairing them in nearly the exact same manner she did before.

"Can't we choose our own partners?" Gretchen said angrily as Jane Doe brought Clam over to her.

"No, no; not to-day," Ms. Doe replied. "This way you can learn to get along with whoever you're paired with, as well as keep an eye on each other so you don't get lost!"

Clam looked at Gretchen and smiled.

"What're _you_ lookin' at?" Gretchen growled.

Almondine was paired with Samson yet again. Almondine looked around, then at Samson as she said, "This seems familiar…"

Jane Doe soon paired Lazlo with Patsy, much to Patsy's liking, and Nina and Raj were also paired off. In fact, Ms. Doe took the liberty to pair off everyone, including the Lemmings, who posed as extra who she paired off to be two partner teams of two.

"Alright-y!" Ms. Doe exclaimed. "Now we can use the buddies' system so no-one gets left behind or alone!"

Soon, they all began to cluster together so that the Beans could talk to their Bean Scout friends and the Squirrels can talk to their Squirrel Scout friends. The buddies' system that Ms. Doe wanted to try became complicated by this. All of the scouts were engaged in a conversation with someone except Samson and Almondine. Almondine didn't really share many interests with the others, while Samson just generally blended into the background too well. They looked at each other, thinking the other was going to go into the group and enter the conversations with the others, but before they even moved, Ms. Doe wanted their attention once more.

"Okay! All of you settle down and get back into your pairs!" Ms. Doe said to them. They of course did not hear her and thus Ms. Mucus was needed.

"Listen up, you little piggies!" Ms. Mucus exclaimed.

"Hey!" Ted the background pig scout exclaimed, offended.

Ms. Mucus ignored the background scout nobody cares about and continued, "Y'all'd better go 'n' stand next to your partners now!" Ms. Mucus shouted and that was, again, all that was needed.

"Listen up, scouts!" Ms. Doe continued. "We'll all be going soon! Remember: you may talk to your friends and all when we're on our way during the hike. You'll have to keep an eye on your partner though, so everyone stays safe! But for now, Slugman is going to take the roll!"

"Um, it's Slinkman, Ma'am…" Slinkman tried to correct as he began to take a quick roll.

When Slinkman finished, Ms. Doe said, "Okay, everyone; let's go!" And began with Scoutmaster Lumpus to lead them off.


	2. Chapter Two: Let's Go!

_**Author's Note to Reader:** Well, this chapter is where I'm getting a bit more into the story itself. I, like in the previous chapter, tried to make sure I made no grammatical or punctuation errors, and tried to keep as in-character as possible with educated guesses as to what I know about characters featured. This chapter is quite longer than the last, but I couldn't see any good place to separate it so, yeah… This chapter covers quite a bit more ground than the previous one._

**_Disclaimer: I do not own "Camp Lazlo" or any characters featured in this story; only the story idea._ **

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Chapter Two: Let's Go!

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Lazlo exclaimed as he began to follow.

"Fun!" Clam said as he ran up to Lazlo with Gretchen miserably near.

"This 'buddies' system' stinks!" Gretchen kicked a rock on the ground and it shot off and hit Sheldon.

"Ow!" Sheldon exclaimed as he rubbed the back of his head whereas the rock had hit.

Gretchen laughed at the luck that the rock hit a Bean Scout. About four seconds later, Clam turned to Gretchen and smiled. Gretchen saw this, growled, and grabbed Clam by the front of his neckerchief. "Alright, you obnoxious little mutated… thing…"

"Rhino!" Clam said and smiled.

"Whatever! If you don't stop lookin' at me like that I'll—"

"Calm it, Gretchen!" Patsy interrupted. "Anyway, I _like_ this buddy system…" she said as she looked at Lazlo and smiled.

"Not that that was _that_ hard to figure out." Gretchen dropped Clam and continued walking with the group. Raj and Nina soon caught up with the others.

Raj suddenly grabbed Lazlo by the neckerchief and exclaimed, "Aaah! Lazlo! _Help!_ I do not want to be taken over by evil alien robot bugs from outer space, who go up through your nose and take over your brain turning you into mindless, alien-robot bug controlled _zombies!_ Aaah!" Raj cowered.

Lazlo looked at Raj confused. "First you feared bugs, now _alien robot_ bugs?"

"Yes! Oh, Lazlo it is terrible! Nina told me that she read it in a book!"

"I'm sure it's not real, Raj…"

Nina stepped in and added, "Lazlo's right! It's just a story; the chances of that happening are very slim…"

Raj was still shaken.

"C'mon, Raj!" Lazlo reassured. "Just remember to have fun and don't worry!"

"Okay, Lazlo, I'll—Aaah!" Just then a little bug flew by Raj. "Aaah! I want to keep my brain! I do not want to be controlled!" he yelled in the bug's direction and ran in the opposite way the group was hiking.

Meanwhile, near the back of the group of scouts on the trail, Samson and Almondine were walking. Samson panted and pulled out his bottle of water from his bag. He took a large gulp of the water and sighed. He waited a moment or two then started taking another drink.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Raj ran right into Samson as he was swallowing his second sip, knocking him over and sending his waterbottle flying. "Aaah! Sorry Samson!" Raj yelled as he continued to run. Nina, due to the buddy system Ms. Doe had placed upon them, kept an eye on Raj and brought him back to the group when the bug was gone.

Samson coughed excessively when some of the water from his last sip went down the wrong way from the sudden fall. After clearing his throat back to normal, he felt there was something wrong with his right arm.

"Awww, nerts!" Samson exclaimed when discovered that he had fallen partially into a mud puddle—nearly his entire right arm was covered in mud. "Eeew, gross!" he whined as he pulled out his arm from the puddle, careful not to get any more mud on him than there was already. He looked, disgusted, at his arm. He got up and held his arm as far from the rest of himself as possible as the mud began to slowly drip off. He looked at his water bottle but saw that when he had dropped it, its remaining contents had spilled all over the ground. He picked it up out of desparation and shook it upside-down vigorously over his muddy arm. Nothing came out.

Almondine walked over to him quietly and said, "We… we really should be keeping up with the others…"

Samson looked with disgust at his arm. "O… Okay… Hopefully they'll have something to wash this off with…" He shook his hand outward a bit, trying to get some of the dirt off.

They hurried up until they were fairly close to the others so as to try not to get behind again. However, Samson was _still_ sidetracked over his arm: staring at it, whining, then shaking it, and staring at it again _while_ whining.

"Don't you have any tissues with you?" Almondine asked, tired of Samson's obsessing over his arm.

"Yeah…" Samson replied. "In my backpack." He pointed with the thumb of his clean hand over his shoulder to the backpack on his back.

She went and opened Samson's backpack and looked inside for the tissues. The first thing she noticed when she came this close to him was his scent. He didn't _smell_ or _stink_ like the other Beans did, but he had more of a scent—A strong scent of soap. She found this really strange for a _Bean_ Scout.

Searching through Samson's backpack, Almondine found herself pawing through several of Samson's medications, wondering why he would need so many. She pawed a bit further, beginning to wonder if he brought any tissues at all. She also ran into several of his precautionary bandages in her searching. There were enough bandages packaged in there to cover four people completely, it seemed. She started to think that this was just one really _strange_ kid she was stuck with.

Eventually she found the tissues, pulled some out, and handed them to him so he could clean his arm off and stop moaning and whining over it. Unfortunately, some of it was dried on, and Samson just _couldn't_ ignore that. Samson looked around and saw a river near by. He ran to it to dampen his arm a bit.

"Samson? I really don't think this is a good idea… We may get lost…" Almondine said, following him.

"But I can't ignore something so obviously gross!" Samson whined.

"It's just mud…" Almondine slowly shook her head, quite annoyed with him but couldn't find herself to express it more than that.

"Sorry, I just _can't!_" Samson leaned down, extending his right arm into the river, and took quite a while cleaning off the mud from it, obsessively making sure there was absolutely no speck of dirt left. "There." Samson smiled wide and looked, satisfied, at his sparkly clean arm.

"Uh, Samson? I… think we're… lost…" Almondine looked nervously in both directions on the hike trail.

"No we're _not_," he laughed nervously. "We'll just have to follow the trail up… They couldn't have gotten _that_ far…"

Almondine squinted up the trail. "I don't see them…"

"Lemme see…" Samson stepped over and looked. "Ah! There!"

"Where?" Almondine looked.

"There!" Samson pointed.

Almondine looked at Samson and pointed to his glasses. "Ummm, Samson…?"

"What?"

"Your… glasses…"

Samson took off his glasses and saw a spot from the mud on them. "Hm? Oh, heheh… Oops… That dirt looked _just_ like our group in the distance… Heheh…" He laughed weakly and cleaned the spot on his glasses off thoroughly. He then returned them to his face and looked again. He blinked. "_Merciful merp!_ We _are_ lost!" Samson took out his inhaler and inhaled many actuations rapidly.

"Well, you did spend an awfully long time cleaning up…"

Samson was still panicking and using his inhaler to breathe.

"Calm down, Samson. Let's approach this logically," Almondine said in hopes that if they think it through logically, it could calm Samson down. She was not really the type to _want_ to conflict with others, and felt perhaps this could solve it soon.

Samson eventually stopped and nodded shakily.

Almondine continued, "You spent about six minutes cleaning up. Before that, the entire group was going at a pace of about three feet per second or one hundred eighty feet per minute, given that the group was slugging along like that, talking, and looking around and things. Sooo… That makes them about one thousand eighty feet away from us, or approximately twenty point five percent of a mile away by now. They couldn't have gotten very far unless they suddenly decided to jog or run or something—which I doubt. If we _hurry_, and go right now, we can still catch up to them."

Samson blinked, shocked she did that all in her head. "Yeaaah… Ummm, I guess you're right… But what about the path?"

"Hmmm, well, that is if the path was a straight line. They are _spatially_ closer to us then if the path curves, which I am sure it does."

Samson blinked again. "Huh?"

"It's easy; I'm just saying that the shortest length between two points is a straight line. If one _were_ to cut through the—"

"Stop with the math, please!" Samson twitched, unable to cope with thinking about math _and_ being lost at the same time. "Do you _girls_ always have to make things difficult?"

"Actually, I believe that _you_ are making everything difficult." She looked at him, beginning to lose her patience a little from Samson's outburst.

"No I'm not! I _had_ to clean my arm off! It's not my fault. If anything, it's _Raj's_—_he_ ran into _me_, knocking _me_ into the _mud_!"

"I'm positive it was an accident and he didn't mean to… Also, you could have just _put up_ with the dirt… It wouldn't _kill_ you…"

"I couldn't! I have very sensitive skin and fur… I _had_ to clean it off…"

"And if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place by straying too far away from the rest of them!" Almondine didn't want to lose her patience, but she just couldn't keep it anymore as she said, "Maybe the reason why you're _shedding_ so much is that you wash _too much!_" Almondine crossed her arms and nodded towards the ground under him.

Samson looked at the pile of lost grey fur under himself, nervously. He bit his lower lip and looked back at Almondine, annoyed. "It's _stress!_" Samson crossed his arms. "So now you're blaming my _fur_ for all this?"

"I'm not blaming… much less your _fur_," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just _stating_ the _facts_." Almondine emphasized that sentence by pointing her index finger into the palm of her other hand sharply.

"Hmph!" Samson turned away and crossed his arms.

"You _boys_ are so immature…"

Samson, upon hearing that, changed his expression from an angry to a surprised expression, which then quickly transformed into an angry expression again, then to worried when he realized the relevance to her comment it would have been if he had responded how he had wanted to. After this bit of confusion he was thus made lost for any words. "Um, well, I… uh…"

Almondine stopped him with an idea, extending her index finger upward as she said, "Wait! What if they notice we're gone?! Someone is _bound_ to notice sooner or later and… and they'll retrace their steps back to us!"

* * *

Meanwhile with the others who were all talking and moving in a cluster on the hike, Ping-Pong and Dave, Samson's roommates from in the Fava Cabin, were discussing something completely irrelevant to anything, like usual. 

"…And then I told them, 'What is the point of having a book if you can't ride in it?'" Ping-Pong said to Dave.

"That _is_ quite logical." Dave replied.

"This is a great day for a hike, don't you think?"

"Yep!"

"Fantastic!"

"Marvelous!"

"Extraordinary! Uhhh…" Ping-Pong paused and glanced around. "Something seems… different…"

"Like how?"

"I don't know, but I think someone's missing…"

"Hmmm…" Dave looked around. "Well I think everyone is here… Maybe it's just a strange feeling."

"You're probably right, Dave."

"Yeah… I'm sure we would have _noticed_ if someone was missing…"

"Yeah…"

"Hey guys!" Lazlo said as he and Patsy went over to Ping-Pong and Dave. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, hi, Lazlo," Ping-Pong said. "We were just thinking that it seems like someone is missing…"

"Hmmm…" Lazlo said as he looked around. "Everyone appears to be here…"

"Here!" Clam said, hopping up next to Lazlo with Gretchen miserably nearby.

"That's what I was thinking…" Dave said, nodding. "Everyone _has_ to be here; we have the buddies' system remember?"

"Yeah. That makes sense…" Ping-Pong replied.

Lazlo shouted to the others, "Hey everyone! Do you all have your partners?"

"Yeah," they all replied.

"Flawless," Dave said.

"Yeah," Ping-Pong replied as they all continued to walk on along the trail.

* * *

Back with Almondine and Samson, Samson had an annoyed expression on his face, knowing full well how unnoticeable he is. 

"No, no one will notice that _I'm_ gone." Samson shrugged. "Heck, I couldn't even get a picture in the Camp Kidney _yearbook_!"

Almondine looked at him strangely. "Really?"

"Yeah, I kind of flipped when that happened… I thought I dreamt it, but it turned out I really did flip—I pasted pictures of myself over everyone in it." Samson laughed nervously.

"Wow… I think I've heard about something like that happening… That was _you?!_ You must have been seen of as a real jerk by them then, huh?"

"Yeah…" Samson sighed.

"I do kind of know how you feel, believe it or not. Only it's a little different for me…"

"How?" Samson asked as he took a cloth cleaning rag he had snuck with him along the hike out and cleaned a spot on an overturned log to sit down on.

"Well, if you haven't noticed by now, I like math. I also like theater. I'm pretty much the only Squirrel Scout who does. Sure—I have some of the other Squirrels I kind of, hang around with on occasion, but we're not exactly, like, best friends who I could talk to about anything or anything like that…" Almondine shrugged and sat down on the log next to Samson. "Yeah; basically makes for very little I can really talk to the others about." Almondine laughed a bit. "And remember the entire ordeal on the return trip from the Old Geezer Geyser in Prickly Pines Park?"

"Boy, do I." Samson shook his head, remembering Edward's excessive panic over a seat.

"Yeah, Edward didn't have a seat and refused to sit in the only place left on the bus: the one next to me. Obviously, it's either one of two things: _maybe_ it was that that side of the bus was dubbed as the 'girls' side'… or it was that _I'm_ not all that liked personally, either," Almondine said with a shrug. "I have a feeling it was probably the latter, given that his expression was basically 'disgusted' at the very notion of sitting anywhere near me. But… I'll admit it gets to me after a while, but I've grown to get used to it." Almondine shrugged lightly.

"Yeah. And I guess I kind of overreacted on the bus too, like when Lazlo accepted Patsy's request to sit next to him. I had an asthma attack!"

"I remember that. I won't say _I_ wasn't startled when Lazlo accepted; I mean, come _on_… The boys and girls around here have always seemed pretty separate and rivaling, you know?" Almondine laughed slightly at what now seemed in retrospect a ridiculous thing to get all panicked over.

"Oh, um, Almondine?" Samson said, glancing at Almondine.

"Yeah?"

"Ummm… I'm… Sorry I kind of, snapped towards you about the whole math thing. I guess I just got a little stressed, being lost…" He readjusted himself a bit on the log he was seated on. "I… I _know_ you weren't _trying_ to make things difficult with that…" Samson paused, and added, "You just _did_ so anyway… You can't help that you're a girl…"

Almondine elbowed him sharply in the side.

"Ow!" Samson exclaimed from the sharp jab she gave him, rubbing his now sore side.

Almondine, satisfied with physically noting her opinion on the nature of the added last remarks, then disregarded as a joke it and replied, "That's okay. I kind of lost it back there too…" Almondine laughed nervously. "Well, what do you say we try to work _together_ in this? Forget the fact that I'm a girl and you're a boy, and let's just _try_ to get along. Arguing won't get us _anywhere_." Almondine extended her right hand towards him, smiling slightly. "Deal?"

"Okay, deal!" Samson said, also wanting to just get out of this situation as pleasantly as possible. He shook her hand in agreement, and they then got up to go try to find the others.


	3. Chapter Three: Who's Missing?

_**Note to Reader:** I would have posted this, like, two days ago, but this story disappeared off the Web site here that day for some reason, and I kept getting errors saying it couldn't find my story. But the problem appears to have left so I am posting chapter three now. Heh…_

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Lazlo or any characters featured in this story; only the story idea._**

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Chapter 3: Who's Missing?

Samson looked up the trail, wondering where to start.

"Ummm, Samson?" Almondine looked at Samson as she put her bag down and pulled out a large folded up sheet of paper. "I have a map…"

"You do?! Why didn't you say anything earlier?!"

"Well, you didn't exactly let me get a word in edgewise back there, you know…"

"Oh, yeah… Well, let's see it!" Samson smiled at this newfound hope in possibly not being lost any longer, and went over to Almondine who was unfolding the large map.

"We're around… Here." Almondine pointed on the map. "They should be heading up the trail north still." Almondine looked up through the intertwined branches of the trees in the woods to where the sun is. "Hmmm… Do you have the time, Samson?"

"Oh, yeah, it's three-thirty in the afternoon," Samson replied, looking at his watch.

"Yikes," Almondine paused. "We have been out here for a long time… They may already be at the end of the path." Almondine looked closely at the map. "They'll be taking the same route back, so the only thing I think we could do is head up the trail until we eventually meet up with them while they're on their way back."

"That sounds good."

"Okay." Almondine folded up and pocketed the map. She then took out a sandwich from her bag. "I need to eat something; I hope you don't mind."

"That's okay. I need to eat too now that I think about it…" Samson put his bag down and looked inside. He paused for a moment, then began shoveling deeper and deeper through it, his entire upper body inside the bag. His voice emerged muffled from his bag as he exclaimed, "Aw, mega nerts!"

"What happened?" Almondine watched as the guinea-pig clumsily pulled his head out of the backpack.

"I forgot to pack lunch!" Samson sighed, acknowledging that fact that that morning he was a so busy packing away useless things that he had forgotten to pack his own lunch.

"Oh, well, um… I have another sandwich… It was going to be for the way back, but you can have it." Almondine pulled out another sandwich from her bag and handed it over to him.

"Thanks!" Samson said as he accepted it.

Almondine took a bite out of her sandwich, put her backpack back on, and began walking up the trail. "Do you want to start heading up while we eat? It'll save us some time…"

"Okay!" Samson said as he picked up his bag and took a bite out of the sandwich. He went over and walked next to Almondine up the trail.

As they were walking, Almondine looked at Samson and asked, "Back when I was getting the tissue for you, if you don't mind my asking… Why do you have so many medicines? I had to move them in your bag when I was getting the tissue, so I noticed them…"

"My Health Buddies?"

"Your Health—_what?_"

"Oh, yeah, um… Asthma Buddy… Allergy Buddy… Foot-Fungus Buddy… Skin Rash Buddy… Eyeball Buddy… I have a lot of health problems…" he said nervously, after which taking a bite off of his sandwich and chewing it thoughtfully.

Almondine's thought lingered on the "Buddy" term he used. She looked at him strangely and asked, "'_Buddies_'?"

"Oh, that's what I call them. They're kinda my only dependable 'friends' that are there for me… My only other friend was a frozen Cave Bean. Even _then_ when he's thawed out he doesn't even listen to me—he's only my friend when _frozen_. Heh…"

"Oh…" Almondine looked at the ground as they walked. "That must be really hard. Heck, you don't even get a _response _from _those_ 'friends'…" She took a bite off of her sandwich as she thought.

Samson glanced at Almondine, quite shocked that she was actually _still_ listening to him—and not about ready to grab some large object and knock him out with it by now. "Um, Almondine?"

"Yeah?" she responded.

"Thanks for, well, listening to me…"

"Hm? Oh, no problem," Almondine replied and looked at him. "I'm more of a listener anyway." She took another bite from her sandwich and looked up the trail. "I hope we find the others soon…"

"Yeah…" Samson said. "We should; we couldn't have _passed_ them yet…" He took another bite.

"Yeah…" Almondine agreed as they both continued up the trail.

* * *

Meanwhile, by that time, the others were, indeed, already at the end of the trail. They were all sitting down, talking, and eating. 

Patsy was eating her lunch along with the other scouts when she took a look around. She looked as if she noticed something wes odd. She looked to Nina and Gretchen and said, "When did you last see Almondine?"

"Almondine?" Nina glanced around. "I don't see her! Who was she with?"

"I don't remember." Patsy paused then asked, "Lazlo? Who was Almondine paired with?"

"I'm not sure; was it Ted?" Lazlo paused in thought then shook his head. "No… Sheldon? …No… The beaver kid? Nah…"

"Harold?" Raj added.

"Harold…?" Lazlo said in thought. "No, no; he wasn't Almondine's partner either…"

"We should ask Slinkman;" Pasty said; "he has the roll!"

They quickly got up and went over to Slinkman. "Almondine's missing and we don't know who her partner is!"

Slinkman turned to Lazlo and said, "This is terrible! I'll check the roll call here." He skimmed his eyes over the clipboard. "Samson's her partner."

"We gotta find them! I'll go tell Scoutmaster Lumpus and Ms. Doe right away!" Lazlo dashed over to Scoutmaster Lumpus. "Scoutmaster Lumpus! Scoutmaster Lumpus!" he shouted as he approached Lumpus in a full run.

Scoutmaster Lumpus cringed at the sound of Lazlo's voice and turned his head miserably to see Lazlo running right at him. "What is it _now_, Lazlo…?"

"Samson and Almondine are missing!"

Lumpus, who was not really listening, replied, "That's good; now go away now…" Lumpus paused, then suddenly noticed that Jane Doe was looking at him, concerned. "Oh! I mean, uh, that's a tragedy! We'd better go find them!"

"How could they have gone missing?" Ms. Doe asked in a fairly clueless manner. "All the scouts were partnered up! They should have been keeping an eye on each other!"

"The scouts were, um, put into _pairs_, Ma'am," Slinkman said, eyeing his clipboard carefully, then returning his glance to Ms. Doe. "If an entire pair alone gets lost, the others might not notice. Well, as in this case, not notice until it's too late and they are _already_ lost."

Lazlo grabbed Scoutmaster Lumpus and exclaimed, "We have to find them now!"

Ms. Doe went over to all the scouts and tried to get their attention. "Okay, Beans? Squirrels? Listen!"

Again she was not heard and Ms. Mucus came over. "Quiet!" she shouted and they went silent.

"Okay," continued Ms. Doe, "we need to get going! We have a little… uh, situation… We're missing Almondine and Samson."

Most of the scouts groaned, gathered their things and stuffed the last of their food in their mouth as they got up.

"Before we go, though, we'll take roll again to make sure no one else is gone! Slugman?"

"Um, it's _Slinkman_, Ma'am…" Slinkman took another roll, and predictably, after the roll was taken, the only two not checked as present on the list were Samson and Almondine.

"Okay, let's go! We'll need to find them quickly before they get hurt!" And with that, a very concerned Ms. Doe led the scouts to retrace their steps along the trail on the way back.

* * *

A while later, Samson and Almondine, were getting tired as they were heading up the hill on the trail. 

"Uhhh…" Samson moaned as he wiped some sweat off his forehead with a tissue. "I don't think I can go another step!" Samson fell face first flat onto the ground.

"You packed too much junk…" Almondine said flatly. She then paused and looked up. "Oh, wow, how long have we been out here?"

Still lying face first on the ground from exhaustion, Samson turned his head, brought up his hand, and looked at his watch again. "Six fifteen…" He paused, then suddenly jumped up, looked again, and exclaimed, "Mother McKree! _Six fifteen?!_ How far have we gone?"

Almondine reached into her pocket and carefully took out the map. "We appear t—" Suddenly as she was unfolding it, a strong stray gust of wind took up the map into the air. "Oh no…!"

Samson and Almondine upon impulse ran quickly off the trail after the map for a minute or so. Then, defeated by the fact the wind took it way too far, they stopped and sighed.

"It's no use! We're _goners_!" Samson cried.

"You know, Samson…" Almondine tried to remain calm, though the stress of the bad-situation-gone-worse nature of everything going on showed in her face and her voice. "At—at this point, we're map-less, and have strayed too far from the trail. Maybe we should stay put for now—They're probably looking for us by now—I hope anyway… If we move, we'll probably get even more lost or something." Almondine sighed.

"You have a point… But…" Samson looked for the positioning of the sun in the sky through the leafy tree branch maze above him. "It's getting late…"

"I know… And not to mention a little cold… But if we go anywhere further, we may never find them, or they may never find us…"

Samson sighed, took off his backpack and sat down on a nearby log—_after_ wiping _that_ log with a cloth cleaning rag as well. Almondine sat down next to him on the log. They both stared out, worried, as the sun was setting. Just as the sun lowered beyond the mountain, it became very dark quite quickly and the air began to chill.

"I wonder how the others are doing," Almondine sighed, worried. "I hope they find us soon…"


	4. Chapter Four: Conclusion

_**Note to Reader:** Sorry about the long, long, long time until the final update. I had this thing typed out for, like, ever but finally got around to proofreading it and posting it. I hope this chapter turns out okay; I tried. It's kinda short, but it's a concluding chapter wrapping things up. Being my first fan-fiction this is, there are several weak spots in my writing I know, but I tried my best, and hope to improve my writing should I ever write another. _**_Disclaimer: I do not own "Camp Lazlo" or any characters featured in this story_—_Only the story idea. _**

* * *

Chapter 4: Conclusion

Little did Almondine and Samson know, all the others had already made it back to the camp, unable to find them. Most of the Beans were tired and already heading to their cabins, and the Squirrels to their boat.

"We can't give up now, guys!" Lazlo said.

"Well I ain't stayin' up one minute longer out here." Edward frowned and crossed his arms. "You morons can stay out here and freeze all over a measly Squirrel Scout and The Camp Wimp, but I'm not! I'm goin' to bed." And with that said, Edward headed off to his cabin.

After that, many Bean Scouts talked amongst themselves, decided with Edward to give up, and went to bed, figuring Samson and Almondine would find their way back eventually. However, the Jelly Cabin insisted that they three would at least be able to stick around and help. Well, it is _more_ like Lazlo _volunteered_ the _entire_ trio of the cabin to search, and they went along with it, despite Raj's fear of the dark.

All the Squirrel Scouts except Patsy, Nina, and Gretchen went back to Acorn Flats with Miss Mucus. Patsy wanted to help Lazlo, and she talked Nina and Gretchen into remaining there to help out, instead of taking the extraordinarily tempting choice of going back to their warm cabins and sleep.

Thus, the Jelly Cabin, Jane Doe, the trio of the Squirrel Scouts, as well as Scoutmaster Lumpus—who went only because he wanted to make a good show of concern for the scouts in front of Jane Doe—were all carefully heading out into the woods again, flashlights in hand.

"Almondine!" Jane Doe shouted.

"Samson!" Lumpus shouted angrily. "This is ridiculous… And to think I could be sleeping right now." Lumpus muttered. "They'll find there way back someday, why should we bother?!"

Lazlo looked at Scoutmaster Lumpus and said, "Now, now, Scoutmaster Lumpus! They are fellow campers! You can't just leave them out here cold and alone! We have to find them! It's part of the Bean Scout Codes! Don't you remember? Never to quit on a scout, or scouts, in need!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Lazlo. Let's just hurry this up…"

"Samson! Almondine! Can you hear us?!" Lazlo shouted into the woods.

Raj was behind Lazlo, shivering, but not so much because of the cold, but more so because of the darkness. He was beginning to get freaked out by every little noise, shining his flashlight in those suspected directions. And Clam; he went along just shouting the names and nothing more.

* * *

Back with Samson and Almondine, Samson sniffed a few times from his nose that was beginning to bother him. "Oh! My nose!" Samson took out his nasal spray—fumbling with it slightly in the dark—and sprayed some into his nose. 

Almondine crossed her arms from the cold. "Oh, I don't know… You don't suppose they all went to the camp and forgot all about us…?" Almondine looked at Samson. Samson, on the other hand, couldn't see much at all in the darkness, whereas Almondine could see quite well, being an owl. "Aaah!" Samson looked over and was suddenly startled, for he could only see two large, wide eyes staring at him from within the blackness.

"Wha—?" Almondine was startled herself by Samson's sudden jump and quickly turned her head one hundred eighty degrees so as to view behind herself to see what he jumped away from—mistakenly thinking he was startled by something behind her.

Samson was startled further when he no longer saw the pair of eyes and all he saw was pitch darkness. "Wh-wh-where are you? Alm—Almondine…?"

Almondine turned back. "Um, I'm here…"

Samson finally gathered that his nerves got the best of him in the dark, and realized that that pair of eyes he saw were that of Almondine's the whole time. "Oh…! Heheh… Sorry about that. I got startled."

"You can't see very well in the dark, can you?"

Almondine saw Samson shake his head.

"Well, just stay close then. I know what'll happen if you get lost out here. You'll _chicken out_ more than usual."

Samson frowned. "Chicken out?!"

"Yes," Almondine replied flatly.

Samson groaned. "I'm not a chicken…!"

"_Sure_, you're n—Wait!"

"What?"

"Did you hear that…?"

Samson paused. "I don't hear anything…"

"Well, I do. They're coming!"

"Who?"

"Lazlo… Clam… Ms. Doe… Patsy, Nina, Gretchen, Scoutmaster Lumpus, and…" Almondine tilted her head, listening intently. "Raj… He sounds like he's just walking behind Lazlo, whimpering scared… He sounds like _almost_ as much of a wimp as you!"

Samson paused. "Yeah, that sounds like—_hey!_" Samson frowned annoyed in Almondine's general direction, then continued, "Wait! Oh! They're getting closer; _I_ hear them now too!"

"Let's go get their attention! C'mon and grab your things!" After she put her backpack on and Samson grabbed his, Almondine grabbed Samson's hand and began to run in the direction whereas she heard them from.

"I can't see a thing!" Samson shouted as he was being dragged along, barely able to keep up.

"Just stay close!"

"Okay…!" Samson barely squeaked out, not like he had a choice anyway. He was being dragged blindly by Almondine around trees and bushes—occasionally feeling an object or two swishing by his head what he guessed to be dangerously close, as he had felt it brush by his fur.

Samson gathered the guts to squint up into the direction he was being dragged and saw the flicker of some flashlights in the distance. "Oh! I see them!" Samson shouted frantically.

"So do I!" Almondine exclaimed.

They both shouted a chorus of "Hey!"s and "Over here!"s and "Guys! It's us!"s as they flailed wildly in an attempt to grab someone's attention.

Lazlo suddenly heard Samson's and Almondine's approaching shouts. "Wait! Guys! I heard something!"

"A—A monster…?" Raj asked. He looked over and saw the glow of Almondine's large eyes approaching in the distance. "Aaah! Monster!"

"That's no monster…" Lazlo shined his flashlight in their direction. "It's Almondine! And Samson!"

Almondine and Samson shouted out to the others as they ran closer, confirming everyone's attention. Soon, everyone on the search noticed and pointed their flashlights over at them, blinding Samson temporarily.

Soon, Almondine and Samson arrived. Almondine let go of Samson's hand, at which time Samson stumbled around dizzily from the circles in his vision left over from the flashlights' being shone into them. He then fell over. Almondine grabbed his hand and lifted him up again, then looked to the others. "It's been a long day… Sorry that we got lost… But _Samson_ just _had_ to get the mud off his arm. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place…" She glared at him.

Samson, still dizzy, muttered, "It wasn't… my fault! It was _Raj's!_"

Raj put his hands on his hips. "It was not _my_ fault, _Shampoo-Boy_, it was the _bug's!_"

Lazlo immediately cut in. "Guys! Guys! It's okay now! No need to blame each other; what matters is we're all safe and sound!"

"Alright, alright; that's enough!" Scoutmaster Lumpus interrupted. "We got what we came out here for. Let's get back to camp—I'm missing out on much-needed rest!"

All the scouts that were on the search went back to camp. Upon arrival, the Jelly Beans went back to their cabin, and Lumpus went back to the Scoutmaster's Cabin. Samson and Almondine suddenly realized that they still has eachother's hands. They both let go in unison, looking at each other, laughing slightly.

Samson smiled nervously. "Well, I'd better get going back to my cabin…" Samson pointed his thumb over his shoulder in the direction to the Fava Cabin.

"Yeah, and I've got to get going to Acorn Flats."

"Well, overall, I guess this wasn't _so_ bad…" Samson shrugged.

"Yeah… See you around sometime?"

"Okay," Samson replied.

"Well, 'bye, then, Samson!" Almondine smiled and waved to him as she walked over to Ms. Doe and the Squirrel Scout trio who were waiting for them, with Miss Mucus who brought their boat back to retrieve them.

Samson waved back and smiled in response, then began on his way to his cabin.

Patsy saw Almondine's interaction with Samson, smiled, then said, "You _like_ him, don't you?"

"Uh, what would give you _that_ idea…?" Almondine laughed nervously.

"Oh, nothing…" Patsy rolled her eyes. Almondine looked at her for a moment and then shrugged off the comment.

The Squirrel Scouts, Ms. Doe and Miss Mucus all went onto the boat. Ms. Mucus started the boat and began taking them across Leaky Lake and back to Acorn Flats. Almondine looked back as they began to leave, seeing Samson heading up the cabin steps. Samson looked back in the direction of the lake for a moment where the Squirrel Scouts departed, then went into his cabin.

Patsy saw Almondine looking back, smiled and said playfully, "You _do_ like him, huh?"

Ms. Doe overheard Patsy's comment and said, "Oh, _Almondine!_ To be young and in love… So _romantic!_"

Almondine frowned, annoyed. "I'm not in—" Almondine paused, sighed, and rolled her eyes flatly. "Oh, never mind…"


End file.
